Language Acquisition And Learnability

Author : Ragnar Arntzen
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789027203120
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Teachability and Learnability Across Languages written by Ragnar Arntzen and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teachability and Learnability across Languages addresses key issues in second, foreign and heritage language acquisition, as well as in language teaching. Focusing on a Processability Theory perspective, it brings together empirical studies of language acquisition, language teaching, and language assessment. For the first time, a research timeline for the role of instruction in language learning is presented, showing how the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research has developed over the last four decades since Pienemann's work on learnability and syllabus construction over the 1980s. The book includes studies of child and adult second as well as foreign language acquisition research, covering a wide range of target languages including English, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. In addition, future extensions of PT are discussed. This volume is designed for advanced students in international programs of SLA and Applied Linguistics as well as for SLA researchers and second and foreign language teachers.

Author : Steven Pinker
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262314282
Total Pages : 509 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Learnability and Cognition, new edition written by Steven Pinker and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-05-24 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic book about language acquisition and conceptual structure, with a new preface by the author, "The Secret Life of Verbs." Before Steven Pinker wrote bestsellers on language and human nature, he wrote several technical monographs on language acquisition that have become classics in cognitive science. Learnability and Cognition, first published in 1989, brought together two big topics: how do children learn their mother tongue, and how does the mind represent basic categories of meaning such as space, time, causality, agency, and goals? The stage for this synthesis was set by the fact that when children learn a language, they come to make surprisingly subtle distinctions: pour water into the glass and fill the glass with water sound natural, but pour the glass with water and fill water into the glass sound odd. How can this happen, given that children are not reliably corrected for uttering odd sentences, and they don't just parrot back the correct ones they hear from their parents? Pinker resolves this paradox with a theory of how children acquire the meaning and uses of verbs, and explores that theory's implications for language, thought, and the relationship between them. As Pinker writes in a new preface, "The Secret Life of Verbs," the phenomena and ideas he explored in this book inspired his 2007 bestseller The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. These technical discussions, he notes, provide insight not just into language acquisition but into literary metaphor, scientific understanding, political discourse, and even the conceptions of sexuality that go into obscenity.

Author : Janette Klingner
Publisher : Council For Exceptional Children
ISBN 13 : 0865864780
Total Pages : 127 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book English Language Learners: written by Janette Klingner and published by Council For Exceptional Children. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique guide for special education teachers, teachers of English language learners, and other practitioners provides the foundational information needed to determine whether the language difficulties experienced by English language learners (ELLs) result from the processes and stages of learning a second language or from a learning disability (LD). The book addresses the following critical factors in detail: determining whether an ELL's struggles with reading in English are due to LD or language acquisition; characteristics of language acquisition that can mirror LD; different types of ELLS and why these differences are important; considering a student's "opportunity to learn" when determining whether he or she may have LD; common misconceptions and realities about ELLs and the second language acquisition process; ways that learning to read in English as a second or additional language differ from learning to read English as a first language, and how the differences can be confusing for ELLs; how schools can establish structure to facilitate the process of distinguishing between language acquisition and LD; how families are involved in the process; guidelines for determining which ELLs should be referred for evaluation; and what it means to use an ecological framework to determine whether ELLs have LD.

Author : Steven Pinker
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674042174
Total Pages : 474 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Language Learnability and Language Development written by Steven Pinker and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this influential study, Steven Pinker develops a new approach to the problem of language learning. Now reprinted with new commentary by the author, this classic work continues to be an indispensable resource in developmental psycholinguistics.

Author : Steve Kaufmann
Publisher : AuthorHouse
ISBN 13 : 1420873296
Total Pages : 142 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Way of the Linguist written by Steve Kaufmann and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2005-11 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.

Author : Virginia Yip
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027224773
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Interlanguage and Learnability written by Virginia Yip and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates a set of structures characteristic of Chinese speakers' English interlanguage (CIL) in the light of grammatical theory and principles of learnability. As a study of CIL grammar, it illuminates both the theory of interlanguage syntax in general and some specific problems in the acquisition of English by Chinese L1 learners. A set of interrelated structures are investigated, including topicalization, passive, ergative, “tough movement” and existential constructions. The interlanguage is approached through the comparative syntax of the relevant L1 and L2 constructions, combining insights from Chomskyan Universal Grammar and typological research. CIL proves to be permeable to Chinese typological influence and bears topic-prominent characteristics, while showing effects of language universals. A parallel theme of the book is the question of learnability in the context of second language acquisition. The Subset and Uniqueness Principles are adapted to the L2 context so as to account for learning difficulty as well as successful acquisition. Under-generation and over-generation of the interlanguage and target constructions give rise to learnability problems which are formulated in terms of set relations at the level of individual constructions. The Uniqueness Principle is invoked to motivate preemption of overgenerated forms. The interaction of syntax and semantics plays a crucial role in the formulation and resolution of these learnability problems. General conceptual issues raised by the Subset and Uniqueness Principles are also discussed.

Author : Robert C. Berwick
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262022262
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Acquisition of Syntactic Knowledge written by Robert C. Berwick and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1985 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The computer model. Computation and language acquisition. The acquisition model. Learning phrase structure. Learning transformations. A theory of acquisition. Acquisition complexity. Learning theory: applications. Locality principles and acquisition.

Author : Charles D. Yang
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780199254156
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.5X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Knowledge and Learning in Natural Language written by Charles D. Yang and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The model is makes quantitative and cross-linguistic predictions about child language. It may also be deployed as a predictive model of language change which, when the evidence is available, could explain why grammars change in a particular direction at a particular time.

Author : Alan Juffs
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027224781
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Learnability and the Lexicon written by Alan Juffs and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a critical review of recent theories of semantics-syntax correspondences and makes new proposals for constraints on semantic structure relevant to syntax. Data from several languages are presented which suggest that semantic structure in root morphemes is subject to parametric variation which has effect across a variety of verb classes, including locatives, unaccusatives, and psych verbs.The implications for first and second language acquisition are discussed. In particular, it is suggested that different parametric settings may lead to a learnability problem if adult learners do not retain access to sensitivity to underlying semantic organization and morphological differences between languages provided by Universal Grammar.An experiment with Chinese-speaking learners of English is presented which shows that learners initially transfer L1 semantic organization to the L2, but are able to retreat from overgeneralisations and achieve native-like grammars in this area.Suggestions for further research in this rapidly developing area of theory and acquisition research are also made.

Author : Kenneth Hyltenstam
Publisher : Multilingual Matters
ISBN 13 : 9780905028415
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Modelling and Assessing Second Language Acquisition written by Kenneth Hyltenstam and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 1985 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book forms an invaluable reference work for all teachers of second languages and researchers in the field of L2 acquisition. It discusses the contribution that modern research into L2 acquisition makes to the curriculum development process. It also provides the reader with arguments for and against the various approaches to teaching.